Art Club: Learning from the Pro

Sharpening my pottery skills with two other teachers in school every Friday afternoon. We even had a lesson with a Ceramist, Mr Chua, in his studio. Soon, we'll be able to fire our students' work on our own.

Careful attachment of different parts of a cup or motifs in a piece is crucial, otherwise, this initial step would lead to wasted effort and time in the end. 

Trimming is essential in making pots. It removes excess clay and unnecessary weight in a piece. It also smoothens the surface evenly quite quickly. Usually done when the clay is leather hard, a term used to describe clay that has some moisture but not too wet or dry for this step. The removed clay are noodle-like and I don't have to exert too much pressure. But when it is bone dry, the removed clay would be powder-like and brittle.

Before you judge us for this abused kiln shelf, our role now is more of a custodian for these properties. We learnt to use batt wash to protect this shelf and to prevent further degeneration. Troubleshooting is one of the things high on my list. We can do everything as we were taught but certain circumstances would require one's thinking to be out of the box. For example, teaching children and adults are vastly different. The characters with whom we are interacting every day have different learning needs. Much more if they require special attention. We need to think of the learners' movement and placement of supplies. We need to place the materials in accessible places and delegate roles to the children so that they can take some responsibilities for their learning. Throughout the learning, there are bound to be teachable moments, peer feedback and exploration. These implicit or hidden curricula are often unsaid or hardly replicated by others. 

Photo credit: Aznani

While I have taken ceramics classes before and the procedural steps are similar, what was missing in my previous experience is that the teachers aren't glaze chemist or connoisseur. However, with more learning in theoretical areas such as explanation in Chemistry and listening to someone learned in terms of depth and breadth is few. As a teacher to younger charges, the teacher has to always be the one adapting to the learners whereas, for adult learners, we are the ones adapting to our teachers, be it in communication or mannerism. I could still produce decent pieces despite the different instructions. I know given time, resources and a will to do better, we can improve our skills. So, when Mr Chua leaves, we would be fending for ourselves but I know he will only be a phone call away! :D

Art Club: Children's Workshop by Children

2 weeks ago, art club pupils conducted a workshop for children at a community library. Each of them had the opportunity to present their year-long project of making a DIY game incorporating LittleBits components. The participants also got to bring home their own LED paper twirler. It was a pity some participants did not turn up due to the morning shower. Nevertheless, it was a comfortable group that the children were able to handle. At the end of the workshop, some of them slumped on the chair and exclaimed that it was SO TIRING to teach the younger ones. Talk about teachers' routines... I'm sure the children would internalise the concept of delayed gratification.  

Last, a BIG shout out to my colleague, Candice, for sending the children's bulky artwork to the library and back to school!

Housekeeping: Art Display

Some time ago, I stumbled upon a commercial art gallery that has a series of artwork suspended with curtain tracks. It's such an elegant and neat way of displaying artwork! I thought that perhaps my school could have something like this too. It seems like such a fine way to display art indoors but we can't replicate exactly what I see because the school compound is semi-indoors so strong winds could tear suspending artwork or tangled long strings. 

At home, this is how I support my creeper plants using Daiso plastic nettings. Perhaps the final idea of art display ended up synthesising after incubation. 

Let's view the installation process! The contractor helped to source and fix the infrastructure - plastic nettings suspended from curtain tracks. Some prominent places near newly-erected walls were 'choped' first. Prior to this, we usually use blu-tac to hold up students' work which I find too labour intensive especially when we have to roll up four blu-tac (like boogers) for each work. When we remove the works, the whole process has to repeat and because the walls have multiple layers of paint through the years, sometimes the blu-tac just don't stay on very well. Thus, we think to hang the children's work with craft clothespins work better. Recently, we tried to make do with paper clips, a cheaper alternative and it means we are looking at a tougher time to remove them. Will keep you posted for new solutions! 

Thanks to my colleague, Candice, for scaling the heights!

The view from inside the art room!

Housekeeping: Managing Paint

I'm very lucky to get two stainless stain sinks in each artroom with this depth! Perhaps they would remind you of a surgical sink, but in fact, it is quite common in art schools. This sink facilitates washing effectively and the most important thing is that it acts like a backsplash which otherwise would result in slippery floor. Imagine forty children doing washing and if one causes a little splash, it would be a significant amount of water on the ground towards the end of the lesson. With back to back classes, it is a substantial mental load just to ensure everyone's safety.

Another thing that I like doing is to minimise the amount of paint staining our new sink. I like children to clean their dirty paintbrushes on a recycled cardboard first before they do the washing. A picture says a thousand words:

Art Club: From Straws to Form

The P4s children built forms using straws. After learning to build smaller structures, they went on to have a competition with each other and eventually the group with the longest independent standing and tallest structure wins! 

Artventure: Lifewide Learning

Science fiction is one of my favourite genres. It mirrors certain aspects of real life and yet gives you a sense of anticipation. What's exciting is very often it depicts the downside of the future and because we are still living in the present so we remain hopeful of what we can or should not do to prevent the catastrophe. For example, in Black Mirror (available on Netflix), I like dwelling on the contemporary issues in the episodes Nosedive and Arkangel. 

Recently, I attended a pre-hackathon workshop and it felt like a fictitious event. The speakers include futurists talking about the Fourth Industrial Revolution, deep tech, blockchain, future shock, future-ready, future leading, future-shaping, ambidexterity, proof of concept, longtail knowledge, just-in-case and just-in-time knowledge. They also talked about microlearning platform such as the SmartUp app because gone are the days where you were made to sit in for 8 hours of training. HA! I have learnt a lot in that evening and it also meant that I didn't know what I don't know. The consolation is that now I know what I didn't know. Sometimes, I wonder why is it that people who are not teachers are frontiers of education whereas I'm standing in front of the classroom.

Learning is becoming more ubiquitous. Joseph Blatt at the Harvard Graduate School of Education talks about lifewide learning which essentially refers to an explicit acknowledgement that learning can and does happen in every facet of life, particularly beyond school hours. 

Before the end of Semester 1, my friends and I conducted a workshop for zonal art teachers. For a day, our audience was adults instead of children. As facilitators, it's a totally different experience to facilitate adult learning. When teaching children, we use the word pedagogy. When it comes to adults, the principles of andragogy sets in.

These are some personal observations from my experience:
I wouldn't say teaching adults is easier than children but in the context of this 1-day workshop, our audience was very cooperative and peaceful. During our group's meeting sessions in preparation for this workshop, we are aware that teachers always look forward to applying what they have learnt in their job. So, incorporating hands-on activity was definitely on our list. Our art workshop is not about teaching a type of craft so teachers can bring back to their classrooms. We strongly discourage that as most craft ideas can be found online and self-taught. Second, since our workshop is bi-annually, it would be an ineffective way to teach. 

It was an inquiry-based lesson where teachers do ideas generation. Through making our thinking visible, we discussed our unique positions and the circumstances that we are in which affected how we think and plan. We also found that sometimes teachers are too eager to incorporate new art techniques into their lessons without knowing their purpose. It could be a coping mechanism and it also meant that the teacher might be surviving instead of thriving.

Next, it also dawns on me that children are often tasked to create an artwork in an artist particular style. Why? Techniques and stylistic problems are not the only way through artmaking. An example is Cubism, Picasso and Braque fragment forms and presents them from multiple perspectives. It's the issue of reality, how we or artworks perceive or represent reality. Not all younger children are ready to hold such a discussion but introduce a picture book: They all saw a cat by Brenden Wenzel about perspectives in reality and we can make Cubism lesson a more meaningful one. 

Housekeeping: Artroom Display

Look at what leftover paint and gesso primer do to plain-looking mache letter! The art room wall is slowly filling up. Thanks to my fearless colleague, Candice, who can balance on the wobbly ladder and put up the letters with neon tapes :D